Add your feedback on energy supplier Powershop

Quentin

But from what gets reported different customers pay different amounts due to getting differing discounts on packs??

How can comparison sites know what power shop will charge a particular customer??

Boohoo

Tafrock wrote: »

The only way of working out your true rates is to look at your monthly bill. I always used to deduct one month's standing charge at cost price ie not discounted. It's irrelevant whatever standing charge is discounted or not really so I took it off at undiscounted price. I then divided the remaining sum by my kWh usage. To me that's what you pay per unit.

There was a post on this thread from last year that answered a question about this issue and the answer was to look at the bill for what ever month it is and there should be a price p/kwh showing. It is like the old TCR that was used a few years back.


Go to accounts, transactions, bill info, click on electricity and for what month it will show average unit price for that month.


Mine last month was 15.07 p/kwh after packs deducted.

tlcgrantham

Comparison Sites can't tell you what Powershop will charge you or even what you now pay. They can only tell you Baseline and Top Shopper rates not what YOU ACTUALLY PAY. I agree with Boohoo on how to find the monthly charge. Then simply add the total kws used for the last 12 months and the total amount paid and compare those figures with a Comparison Site.

fewkeste

Building on what tclgratham has posted, what I used to do was calculate what discount I had achieved in the previous billing period (I've explained how to do this in previous posts) then apply that discount to the annual bill calculated using my Baseline Tariff and my typical annual consumption.

I then used that discounted annual amount to compare what my annual usage cost would be assuming I achieved that monthly discount all year round.

So, each month I would have a different figure that was basically 'this is what my annual bill would be if I achieved the previous month's discount all year round'

That tells me when I see estimated annual bills on a comparison site if there are better deals out there compared to what I'm achieving right now.

Now of course it is the case that summer discounts are not as good as winter discounts but the concerm for me was that the big discounts to be had in the few winter months have to be shared out over all the months to get/achieve the overall discount.

I didn't like the idea of putting up with poor summer discounts in the hope that bigger winter discounts later would compensate for that situation.

From the pawltry winter Future Pack discounts and amounts that are being posted, I made the right decision to leave.

I did ponder the possibility of coming back for the winter months, but with the kind of poor discounts and low amount of Future Pack credit available, I don't think I'll be returning just yet.

Tafrock

Yes you can use powershops way of representing kWh but then to compare it to other companies rates you would have to convert their kWh to a similar representation

Comparison sites list kWh and standing charge separately. So to convert to the rates powershop show on your monthly bill you would have to take a rivals kWh. Multiply it by your monthly usage. Add on one month's standing charge and divide by your monthly usage

I find it easier to remove the standing charge from the equation by deducting it from your monthly bill and then dividing by kWh used. That gives a rate per kWh that you can compare to other companies

The easiest way of course is to use a comparison site with your actual annual usage

That will also give you your monthly costs. If you compare it to what you are paying with powershop per month you will see whether powershop is dearer or not

In my experience powershop is not competitive anymore. That saddens me but in Midlands region for my usage they can't compete

Equites

This was the offering for me this month (2nd year with Powershop, Electric only).
Just one pack available for each option in the list below.

Little Extra Pack - 41% off - 3 days worth energy
Little Extra Pack - 21.5% off - 3 days worth energy
Simple Saver - 19.4% off - 3 days worth energy
Jumbo - 8.2% off - 6 days worth energy

The January Future pack has a 22% discount for the equivalent of 9 days energy - have the option to buy two of these.

Not inspiring to be honest. Moving house in the next few months and it looks like it will be onto a new supplier as Powershop are getting more and more uncompetitive.
Struggling to understand why they are going this way - to the average punter looking around for a new deal their offering looks quite complicated to operate so to entice people they really need to be very price competitive.
Instead, they are offering a complicated product that is more expensive than suppliers with simpler and less time intensive offerings. Not the way to win in a energy market like this.

fewkeste

Equites wrote: »

Struggling to understand why they are going this way - to the average punter looking around for a new deal their offering looks quite complicated to operate so to entice people they really need to be very price competitive.
Instead, they are offering a complicated product that is more expensive than suppliers with simpler and less time intensive offerings. Not the way to win in a energy market like this.

I absolutely agree with the above points. Also, given most PS customers are quite energy savvy, I would think the moment they spot/calculate they are no longer getting a good deal, they'll be off.

My one concern is that given the nature of the PS offering, it's not that easy to calculate if your current situation is competitive; hence why I devised my own method to check.

I keep doing price comparisons and if PS do become competitive again, I would return, but anyone who is into their second or greater year needs to do some calculations.

tlcgrantham

The Price Cap will be reduced by about 6% on October 1st. Anyone on the recent version of Baseline should therefore see a similar reduction in their tariff. That may be why future pack discounts have been disappointing lately.

Boohoo

I have just got my electric statement for 06/07 to 05/08 and it was £40.65 after powerpacks for 256 kwh which eqates to 15.82 per unit which is the highest i have paid for this year.


Last July/August was £32.83 for 258 kwh and worked out at 12.72 per unit.


I have bought powerpacks at about 20% or higher for the later months and it says i am paid upto the end of June next year but at 15 per unit it is time to look around.


I don't know if the price cap will make any difference to the discounted powerpack going forward.

tlcgrantham

I expect Ps will honour the discounted packs you've bought. However the Baseline Tariff that it's discounted from may well be 6% lower as you're probably on the new Price Cap linked Baseline Tariff that must be reduced by October. If so the Net Price you pay will also fall. You can always ask PS customer services to be sure.